Friday, February 14, 2014 4:13 pm

Search underway in Maui for missing pregnant woman

WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP) — A private search party on Friday looked for a missing pregnant Hawaii woman whose SUV was found torched two days earlier in a rural area.

Carly Scott's mother reported her missing Monday. She told police a family member last saw the 27-year-old redhead Sunday night at her sister's home in Haiku, in northeast Maui.

Scott is five months pregnant.

Maui police said someone in the search party found "possible evidence" Thursday. But police aren't revealing what was found. They're asking searchers who find possible clues not to touch or move them.

The Makawao woman's burned 1997 Toyota 4Runner was found Wednesday in Haiku's Peahi area. Before the vehicle was located, police found Scott's dog in the nearby community of Nahiku, the Maui News reported.

Her ex-boyfriend, Steven Capobianco, tells Hawaii News Now she picked him up Sunday night and drove him to Keanae — several dozen miles away on the two-lane, winding Hana Highway — so he could fix his truck. Scott's dog, Nala, was with her when she picked him up, he said.

Capobianco said Scott later was driving behind him to Haiku, but he lost sight of her SUV at some point. He said he figured she arrived safely at her destination.

So far, the locations involved are all in what's considered Upcountry Maui, the more rural part of the island.

"I sent her a text that said, 'thank you,' but I figured she was working, that's why she didn't get back to me right away," Capobianco told the news station. "It wasn't until the cops showed up at my house at 5:30 in the morning the next day that I realized something was wrong."

Capobianco said police questioned him and administered a lie-detector test, which he was told he failed. But he told the station he "absolutely" did not hurt the green-eyed Scott, who police described as 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds.